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  • Anyone Obsessed?

    Does anybody become obsessed with a story that just develops and keeps going and going and going, even when its on the absolute extremities of your tree? I have been re-investigating an accidental shooting of a 6 year old boy, that was caused by my Ancestor who is my 1st Cousin 3 x removed. As I have uncovered layer after layer of the story, I have just felt compelled to keep going, including more tragedy and an adoption, and an emigration.

    Anybody else do this?
    My Family History Blog Site:

    https://chiddicksfamilytree.com

  • #2
    Yes!

    I got obsessed with a distant ancestor, child of a sibling of my 3x great-grandfather. I discovered she went to London, married within a matter of days of arriving there to a man with a Germanic name, and disappeared.

    I've gradually discovered that they, plus the man's brother and his new wife, boarded a ship for NZ within days. Digging and digging and help from a NZ friend has led me to the discovery that they became well-known and eventually somewhat wealthy pioneers down under. But I had to keep going!
    My grandmother, on the beach, South Bay, Scarborough, undated photo (poss. 1929 or 1930)

    Researching Cadd, Schofield, Cottrell in Lancashire, Buckinghamshire; Taylor, Park in Westmorland; Hayhurst in Yorkshire, Westmorland, Lancashire; Hughes, Roberts in Wales.

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    • #3
      Not with one particular person. Hubby just says I am obsessed with genealogy - period

      Comment


      • #4
        Yes!

        I have to keep on picking and picking until I get to the bottom of things, past and present!

        I wanted to post a birthday card to a recently acquired new friend - I had a phone number but no address and she wasn't listed in the phone directory. It was an unusual surname and as I'd been told that the lady used her maiden name for business purposes, I did what any family historian would do and turned to the GRO marriage index to find out the husband's name. Disaster - there was only one marriage, wrong forename and about 20 years too early. The spouse had been a GC. Feeling stumped, I them tried electoral rolls as I k​​​​​new new friend and husband had lived near a mutual acquaintance. Found friend but she was living with a GC,??? Looked GC up in the phone book and friend's number came up.
        The penny dropped - looked up new friend's birth reg and then the marriage of her parents. The forename of her birth mother matched the name of the person who had married GC and GC's forename matched that of friend's late husband. At the time that friend's mother died, it was illegal for a man to marry the daughter of his late wife, which explained why friend used her "Maiden"name and also why there was no marriage registration.
        Next time I met new friend, she said "Did I tell you G and I never married because... " I didn't let on that I already knew, just said "No reason that I need to know, but thank you for telling me."

        And I'd only been trying to find out where to post a card for a special birthday
        Janet in Yorkshire



        Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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        • #5
          I am for sure

          My G Grandfather, the 1st sighting I have of him is in India in the army, I started getting all the children's b certs. He said he was from Tipperary.......not on your life a chap looked for him for me but no one with this surname was born there at around that time . I think he changed his name along the way. I picked and picked at this family and I also found a G Aunt married a French man and their child was also shot.........at 9 years of age, he was playing cowboys and Indians and the other boy was the cowboy and my G Aunts boy Dante was the Indian......a real gun was involved I have Dante's d cert and the cause of death was "bullet wound". The chap who accidentally discharged the bullet ended up in a mental hospital......he never got over it.

          I think I have a dabble into this family at least once a week, I have never found G Grandfathers wife either....birth, marriage or death.....and haven't found anything for this family for a good few years.....but, I keep going

          G Grandfather was in India in the army for 29 years the came out and went into the police force.....cant find any records from his police service but have all his and his sons army records.


          I live in hope....one day, I will find out who my G Grandparents were
          Jacky

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          • #6
            Yes. I have a hobby tree, a village tree that I started many years ago in the hope that my mystery ancestor might have hailed from there. 40 years on I still haven't found a link but I have nearly 5000 names on it! I cannot stop and every time I add a name or two, I feel a huge sense of excitement and satisfaction. About 20 years ago I found an unpublished book in the local archives and was thrilled to find that my research matched his findings.

            OC

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            • #7
              I have a couple of 'ancestor villages' I'm tempted to do the same with. I'm sure some of my 'mystery' DNA matches are a result of very close local relationships as many lead back to the village in question. That's going to be my next project I think.
              Anne

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              • #8
                My g'g'grandfather was born in "London" in 1834. Probable baptism didn't occur until 1844 (several children of the household baptized at once). Common surname. Records that we knew with certainty didn't occur until baptism of daughter #2 in 1866. After that, he was pretty easy to follow.

                There was a 1863 marriage record - wrong occupations for fathers' occupations and his father's first name also did not match the father we suspected.

                Proving that the pre-1866 records that we suspected were him and his birth family...well, we were finally satisfied with DNA matching.

                There were tears of joy shed in several households when we had the match results.

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                • #9
                  A lot of my time taken is chasing people in my Victorian school logbook project, , 500 pages spanning 1863-1880, I've got 569 footnotes now and have trees for all the people I can find a census entry, birth or baptism for though some have eluded me (coachman's son David Bugby for instance) and now I have begun again to see if I can find anything in newspapers, which has yielded two suicides and a boy burglar sent to reformatory school, a family leaving as the father stabbed someone in the leg and was jailed, as well as the more mundane winning of prizes for veg at horticultural shows.

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                  • #10
                    Jill

                    Your David Bugby caught my eye. I have a family of Busbys who were coachmen/makers etc for many generations and Daniel was a favourite name - David and Daniel often look identical in old script. Just a thought! Lancashire.

                    OC

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                    • #11
                      Yes.
                      Caroline
                      Caroline's Family History Pages
                      Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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                      • #12
                        Oh my goodness yes.

                        At the moment I am persuing the first husband of my 3x Great Grandfathers 2nd wife. This is following the researching of a lady with the same name as my G.Grandmother's younger sister, who's marriage certificate I obtained way back at the start of my family research. The marriage certificate was not for my lady, but I have since found out that she married the step grandson of my 3x Great Grandfather who's own father changed his name from his 2nd wife's first husband and his biological father to that of my 3x Great Grandfather.

                        Confused ... you will be. But oh so worthwhile following the twists and turns along the way.

                        I am so fortunate that my paternal line is a family that just keeps on giving.
                        Bubblebelle x

                        FAMILY INTERESTS: Pitts of Sherborne Gloucs. Deaney (Bucks). Pye of Kent. Randolph of Lydd, Kent. Youell of Norfolk and Suffolk. Howe of Lampton. Carden of Bucks.

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                        • #13
                          Phew...............and I thought it was only me
                          My Family History Blog Site:

                          https://chiddicksfamilytree.com

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                          • #14
                            i get obsessed with branches i get stuck on. have enough direct line mysteries to research, so don't really research twigs unless the family is small or complicated. currently chasing my french 6th great grandparents, hoping for a miracle to find their baptisms (c.1702 and c.1719) and marriage pre 1742....possibly in bride's home of beauvais. groom lived in rouen for a bit, but marriages seem to be well covered in that city. other thought is paris....records don't really exist because of the 1871 franco-prussia war that resulted in major parisian landmarks being burned down, like the tuileries palace and the national library (that held all the parish records and the bmd records from 1792). no sign of a surviving marriage contract in the notary archives either. doesn't help he was a bodyguard of the royal family. could have married anywhere! his son's memoirs stated he was imprisoned in the bastille too. no evidence of that story!

                            also obsessed with his parents, my 7th great grandparents. been chasing them all over normandy. no births or marriage for them either. recently found the husband's death in rouen in 1732, the wife wittnessed their dau's marriage there in 1739 and drops off the face of the earth....he was a bodyguard for the duke of orleans. family musings she was related to an important court family. unlikely but possible.

                            makes it bloody hard when you have no idea where to look. and i would love to know how many guards there were for the royal family. 100? 1,000? there seem to be garrisons in one or two locations outside versailles. did they ever see the royal family? did they ever go to versailles? 3 known generations served as guards for various members of the royal family. would love to know that all started.

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                            • #15
                              Kylejustin

                              I know what you mean when you say you don't know where to look. One of my biggest breakthroughs came out of my whining on a small group about not being able to find any trace of a baptism where it ought to be in the 1720s. Someone sent me a private message with a photocopy of the baptism, from a collection that is still not online and in an area some 200 miles from where I would have expected it and in a congregation I had never heard of. It is definitely him because the father's unusual first name is given, along with his residence where it ought to be. I never in a million years would have found this under my.own steam because I didn't know where to look - we don't know the things we don't know!

                              OC

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                              • #16
                                right I have discovered a living relative in New Zealand, because there is a delicate story behind the headlines here, potentially the person I am contatcting is the half brother of a 6 year old boy killed in a shooting accident, should I contact them or not?
                                My Family History Blog Site:

                                https://chiddicksfamilytree.com

                                Comment


                                • #17
                                  it wouldnt surprise me if it were connected to my family in new zealand as most of them had mysterious ways about them. I am still delving into great grandmothers story and all her newspaper reports.lol

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                                  • #18
                                    Have you been on line and read the coroners report into this incident? I am amazed at what I have been finding. If you find the reference number on archway archives NZ then go to family search a lot of the inquests are on there. I just found the coroners report on my great great grandmother. Another tragedy, she fell backwards and hit her head on the coal bucket. But the coroner report from her husband sort of confirms my suspicion that great grandmother wasnt his child. He says there were 4 children from their marriage 2 deceased then he quotes the other 2 and what they are doing so that means my great grandmother wasnt included in his maths...lol

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                                    • #19
                                      Sounds a really strange set of circumstances, advanced maths not a specialist subject then.

                                      my shooting took place in Herefordshire and they emigrated after to New Zealand. Found lots of newspaper reports in New Zealand and both their wills as well. No coroners report in the uk only the details reported in the newspapers
                                      My Family History Blog Site:

                                      https://chiddicksfamilytree.com

                                      Comment


                                      • #20
                                        Oc,

                                        people moved so much more than we think they did. Without digitisation of records i would be very stuck on many branches.

                                        I suspect my 7th great grandparents had kids in paris before moving to fécamp, then st nicaise parish in rouen, then notre dame in gournay en bray, and back to rouen, but st vivien. I knew none of this till indexed normandy records came online this year.

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